


Unnatural

by AnonymousCapybara



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 1 (Critical Role), F/M, Minor Keyleth/Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Minor Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23529295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousCapybara/pseuds/AnonymousCapybara
Summary: It is one of the hardest days of her life when Vex realizes that she has spent more years without her brother than she spent with him.
Relationships: Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 86





	Unnatural

It is one of the hardest days of her life when Vex realizes that she has spent more years without her brother than she spent with him.

She’s fifty-seven, hardly old for a half-elf. She has finally started to feel her age though, in ways Percy did a decade ago. She is not the young woman she was in the heyday of Vox Machina.

Since Vax died, she does not like to make a big deal of her birthdays. At first, this was because it was a reminder of another age that her brother had not reached. Something that seemed terribly unnatural, especially considering that, until the age of twenty-eight, Vex had not taken a breath in a world without her brother.

Now, though, it seems more normal for her brother not to be there. It has never stopped hurting, of course, and Vex still occasionally catches herself turning to him for a joke or a hug, only to find empty air.

But her children have never known their uncle, and Vax has not been around for the last twenty-nine years of relative peace that Whitestone has experienced. Life looks so different now than it ever did when Vex had her brother. She has, at the very least, grown accustomed to it. (She will never accept it.) She has not cried over her brother in years.

She takes two slices of the cake made by Percy and the children out to the bench - her yearly ritual. She’ll feed his piece to a raven. Her family, bless them, are always supportive and loving and wild. And they are always smart enough to give her these few hours of peace on the morning of her birthday. Percy’s doing, surely.

“Here, brother,” she says quietly as she sets the cake beside her on the bench, waiting for the raven that will surely come.

And come he does. Vex would like to think this raven that always visits - actually, she would like to think that the entire population of ravens in Whitestone - is connected to her brother. She always speaks to them as though they are. 

“Hello there, Vax,” she says conversationally. “We’re fifty-seven today! Isn’t that something…” Vex trails off. “I’m fifty-seven, I suppose. And you’re still… twenty-eight, was it?” 

The raven caws as if to agree with her, nudges at her hand, and then swoops in for a bite of her slice of cake.

Vex whacks at the raven. “Stop it, you thief! Still trying to take things that don’t belong to you. Would’ve thought you’d grown out of that by now, Darling. I brought you your own slice.” 

The raven cocks his head before beginning to eat his own slice.

“A lot has happened in the last twenty-nine years, brother. I wish you could’ve seen it…” Vex is about to babble her way into a recap of all of the things her brother has missed when she realizes the weight of her words. “Pelor, it’s been twenty-nine years?”

She takes a shaky breath, gathers herself up, and stares at the raven. “Shit. I’ve been alone for longer than we were together.”

And that realization is just so wrong, so unnatural, that it brings tears to Vex’s eyes. She tries furiously to blink them away, but to no avail. In an effort to maintain her dignity, she stabs her cake violently with her fork and shoves a large piece into her mouth, focusing on chewing.

The raven caws and nudges her elbow with his head. Vex sniffles pointedly as she swallows her cake. “You idiot,” she says tersely to the raven. “Still making me cry after all these years. Are you quite pleased with yourself?”

Maybe she’s losing her mind, but she would swear that the raven smirks at her before going back to pecking his slice of cake. 

Vex finishes her cake in silence after that. “Don’t forget to visit Keyleth,” she whispers to the raven as she gathers herself to go back inside and greet her family. The raven caws agreeably but doesn’t leave the bench until after Vex is out of sight.

One day, many years from now, Vex will awaken alone in her bedroom, her darling husband long since passed. She will feel the creaking in her bones and the exhaustion in her body. She will pin feathers in her long white braid and she will slowly, ever so slowly, make her way out to the bench where she comes every year on her birthday.

This year, she will not bother with cake. She knows that she will not need it.

And when the bench begins to come into her view, she will see someone sitting on it, all dark hair and feathers. As she approaches, her bones and muscles shed the weight of the years she has lived. She feels young and free in a way she hasn’t in decades.

Her brother stands up and strides the last few steps toward her. “Sister,” he chokes out, his voice caked with emotion, “Are you ready?” 

And she has her arms around him, and the wrinkles and years of sorrow are gone, and she can’t wait to go home.


End file.
